All Forum Posts by: Matthew Saskin

 I'd add, that for the sake of comparison, it's worth noting just what services they provide.  As an example, mine in NC takes care of what I mentioned above, in addition to processing all payments, managing deposit accounts, and just writing me a check every few weeks for any money left in the end.  Additionally, they handle all late payment notifications, they run the eviction process (and charge the tenant where applicable), etc.  On the other hand, my PM company in NYC does little more than collect rents and act as a number for the tenants to call if there is a problem/coordinate fixes.  All in all, vastly different services I get between locations, but the amount I pay also reflects that.

 Our rents on those units average 700/mo.  We've got a few long-term (10+ year tenants) at 600-625, and a few new leases at 795.  Shoot me a message with your email address and I'm happy to share the paperwork.

 All depends on your turn rate.  I pay 7%, full months rent for finding a new tenant, flat fee ($100) for processing a renewal, and half-months rent if the PM manages (eg; gets multiple bids, contracts out the work, etc.) any turn-over repairs, or I can do that on my own.

I've got 10 properties with them and average 2 vacancies per year, so my effective rate to them is 7% of rent-roll + 2 months rent + $800 + 1 add'l month rent (2 x 1/2) for managing turnover repairs.  Works out to 10.4% on average across the properties, which works for me given the level of service they provide and how effective they've been at raising rents during turn-overs, etc.

Agree - at face value that looks good.  Beyond repair costs, make sure you're comfortable/conservative with your target rents and vacancy rates, those are the biggest components (to me) that can make or break things.

I'll be very frank - I would never live in Zebulon.  That's not a reflect on anything negative about the area, just not my style/location at all, so can't really speak to schools, new growth, etc.  From my perspective (and for my purposes), the area is safe and has a very stable rental (and owner...) population, and more importantly growth aside, the rental population tends to be very blue collar and not likely to (for example) leave and buy their own home.  I don't count on making any money via appreciation of our properties there - it's purely a long-term cash flow investment

As long as costs are kept under control, that balance of rent to expense isn't terrible at first blush.  Raleigh in general, and Zebulon in particular, are very stable rental markets.  Our properties came almost fully occupied and many of the tenants have been in place for 5+ years, with a few in place for 10+ years.

For PM we use Golden Realty & Management and they've been fantastic to deal with.  Our set of duplexes are all on Lonesome Wind Way - it's a set of 5 duplexes around a cul de sac, so essentially the whole street is ours.  They were terribly mismanaged when we purchased, but in good overall shape and with stable tenants.  We're into it for $750k in initially (bought all 5 as a package) with a monthly rent roll of around $7k.  Everything was built in 1997, so we're getting close to thinking about roof repairs and have misc. HVAC and water heater repairs pop up, and are into each unit for $2-3k during turns to replace carpet, repaint, new appliances, etc. as the previous owner did absolutely no interior updates or care unless he absolutely had to.  That said, the last turn we did this work and replaced a 650/mo tenant with a 795/mo tenant.

 I'd agree with this entirely.  Can't comment on the Houston market, but we use property managers both in NYC and Raleigh - NYC as we're not there full time and Raleigh because the demands of my full-time job are too much for me to waste time self-managing.

In both areas, I've gone through a process of interviewing several property management firms which has been a combination of me getting a "gut feeling" for how they work and getting specific questions answered.  In both cities, the firms I selected are the ones that didn't just answer my questions, but collected information from me ahead of time (property locations, valuation, current rent roll, etc.) and came to me, unasked, during our first meetings with not just their credentials and "sales pitch", but a specific plan for how they would transition the properties, and more importantly, look out for my long-term goals (eg; in the case of raleigh, we have several units renting under market value and the firm came to me proactively with a plan to get those units up to market rent or higher over the next 3-5 years).

 Congrats!  We've got a handful of properties in our portfolio (5 duplexes) out in Zebulon that have been performing fabulously for us.  We use a great property management firm that handles all of the day-to-day including finding tenants, ongoing management, repairs, etc.  Happy to point you in their direction if you're looking to "outsource" some of the activity.

Mind sharing your thoughts on the financials of the deal? Always interested in seeing what people are up to in the SFH space as it's just not an area we invest in (we only do MFH).

Going to be highly dependent on the area I would think.  Speaking to north carolina, our property management company creates leases between the tenants and the PM company - we've been able to evict tenants without any problems in this setup for what it's worth.

 Care to share those criteria (publicly or privately)?  Happy to share my experiences in the Brooklyn market to either fill in gaps in what you're seeing or just tell you a bit about what we've learned in the past 5 years or so.